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Bitter battle puts our nationhood at stake

Leanne Wood

Devolution is a powerful tool to fight against the threat from Westminster

This week marks 20 years since people in Wales said yes to the creation of their own national assembly in the referendum of 1997. That majority vote in favour of a national institution signalled a new period of promise and potential as the nation asserted its right to govern its own affairs in key areas.

No longer would Westminster legislate on health and education in Wales, offering a new national government an opportunity to chart its own course and make a success of self-rule.

Two decades later, the vote to leave the European Union threatens to transform the UK’s constitutional context, with the very principle of devolution under attack.

Not only does the Westminster government’s EU Withdrawal Bill threaten Wales with an unprecedented and unnecessary…